


cat, meet dog. dog, meet cat.

by morphological (phraseme)



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis, ダイヤのA | Daiya no A | Ace of Diamond
Genre: Chance Meetings, Crossover, Gen, Mistaken Identity, shouting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 18:36:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13440810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phraseme/pseuds/morphological
Summary: eijun was only doing what he was told when he found the weird guy.





	cat, meet dog. dog, meet cat.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inelegantly (Lir)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lir/gifts).



eijun was only doing what he was told when he found the weird guy. he'd been told to run laps, because _apparently_ morale-boosting was the cheer team's job, so he goes around the entire grounds. he's never been to this school before, and has also never seen a school with an english name written on their uniforms. seishun academy's baseball team is probably good, but seidou will be better, and eijun is most definitely absolutely going to be there to help secure that victory. eijun thinks these things to himself in increasingly loud mental chants, and—even if he says so himself—feels like he could conquer most of the town, if not all of it, and grins to himself at the image: the seidou uniform towering tall over seigaku.

whatever their baseball team might be like, the school itself seems huge. he runs through the high school, university, and middle school divisions, across grass and on paved sidewalks. eijun passes by students in black, high-collared uniforms and doesn't miss the _gakuran_.

eijun tries to banish the memories of that stiff, heavy suit and trips over the weirdo laying on the grass, kind of in the way, with a screech. the roadblock is tiny, wearing gym shorts and some kind of sports jersey. he looks tiny, and indignant at the fact eijun's woken him up from a nap.

"?!" it's incredible how the pint-sized guy can express so much upset-ness without a word, almost like furuya's aura (who should be given its own jersey and field number).

"sorry! sorry!!" eijun scrambles to get back up, dusting off his away uniform—god, coach would kill him with silent glare technique #547 if he screwed it up before the match—and offers the kid a hand. "i was running," he explains, "and i tripped, over you, i think, you were on the ground! sleeping?! it's one o'clock! you can't sleep your life away, kid!" eijun insistently shoves his helping hand in the kid's face. traces of sleep still remain on his face, features a bit soft and lazy-looking, mouth pulled flat in an almost-frowning line. "here! let your senpai help you up and show you the high road!!"

the kid doesn't take his hand. he inspects it, looking a bit more awake, sleepy eyes sharpening to bright focus, and remains on the ground. he doesn't even do eijun the courtesy of, you know, sitting upright, nevermind standing up when his upperclassman so generously and kindly has offered him help.

judging by the unimpressed look the kid levels at him, eijun might have said all of that aloud. he huffs a tiny sigh, and just gets up by himself, ignoring eijun's help. "happy?" he grumbles, and eijun claps him on the back, pleased at their mutual success.

"very!" he agrees. the kid eyes him like he's thinking about doing something unpleasant to him, but doesn't try to inch away either. "you should really find better places to nap," eijun says.

the kid scowls. it's endearing, since eijun's sure he's right and the kid is just stubborn. "you're not on the baseball team, are you?! geez, if you are, you shouldn't be here!! come on," eijun shouts, and half-drags, half-pulls the kid with him back to the baseball field. "you're gonna be late! you know we play today, right?! we'll be on different teams, and just because i met you today—"

"tripped over," the kid interjects, and hey, that's the only piece of real world conversation he's said so far, "more like. _senpai_."

"however we met!!" eijun glosses over it, since if the kid is late then he might be late, and it'll be the combined death glares of coach, captain, and teammates if that's the case. "you have a match today and you're not even in uniform? guess you're not a first-stringer like me, huh!"

the kid just pulls his cap over his eyes and mumbles something. eijun's not sure what he says, because the kid is just so, so short. "i am!" eijun continues, pride bleeding out from every pore. "i'm an ace pitcher!! so watch out! if you work hard, you might bat against me someday—"

"hey! hey!!" with ease, some total stranger plucks the kid from eijun's grasp. tall, with really tall hair, and a frown that makes eijun feel like he's in trouble. "what are you doing with our echizen?"

"i'm taking him to the game, what are you doing?" he shoots back, and then stops. "hi, echizen." even after all they've been through together, the kid doesn't wave or acknowledge eijun's voice.

"i'm taking him back to the tennis courts where he belongs," the stranger snaps. "what the hell?" echizen, the weirdo kid, is already wandering off with his hands in his pockets. eijun mourns the fact that he was, in fact, only part of the tennis club and not some starry-eyed second stringer about to watch him play on the field. "this is the seigaku middle school division's singles three player, you can't just kidnap him when you want!"

"i wasn't kidnapping him!" eijun protests, putting up his hands. "i tripped over him!"

"are you from a rival school?" he demands. behind him, echizen seems to be caught by another kid, red-haired and smiling, flipping a tennis racket over his wrist like nothing. "you're from yamabuki, aren't you—"

"i'm from seidou!" eijun squawks. "i'm not a spy!"

" _seidou_ ," he repeats, crossing his arms. "i've never heard of that school."

"read it!" eijun points to his uniform. "see?! and i'm not from anywhere else, and i don't play tennis!!!"

"...if you don't play tennis," the guy says slowly, looking eijun up and down, "...and you're on a baseball team … then why are you here?"

" _i'm telling you!_ " eijun explodes. "i tripped over him!!!"

"...eijun?" haruichi touches him on the shoulder and eijun whirls around, still upset and confused but mostly relieved to see a friendly face.

"haruichi!!!! tell these people i'm innocent!" he waves a furious hand at the angry guy and the ghost of echizen whatshisname. "i'm not a kidnapper!!"

"why would you kidnap a middle schooler?" haruichi asks, and shakes his head. eijun repeats his question silently, mouthing each word like a goldfish. "coach told us to get you back. it's time."

"...middle schooler…" eijun allows himself to be pushed in the direction of the baseball field, haruichi's palms planted firmly on his back. "he's in middle school?!"

**Author's Note:**

> epilogue: 
> 
> still frowning, takeshi watches the two weird guys (or rather, one incredibly weird guy and a normal guy) move away from the tennis courts.
> 
> "momo!" kikumaru-senpai hollers. " _ochibi-chan_ is playing! come back before tezuka gives you laps!"


End file.
